“Envisioning a better future for our pupils”

What is the Envision Partnership?

16 primary schools in the Bishop’s Stortford area have formed a strong partnership called Envision to work collaboratively and deliver school to school support work across the primary phase. The schools have historically worked well together, and this formalisation will cement their commitment of ‘envisioning a better future for our pupils’. This initiative is built on the principle that when educators work together, a positive impact is made on children’s lives; collaboration between schools contributes to school improvement and pupil success.

School Improvement

All the schools have committed to a ‘Schools Partnership Programme’, which is an evidence-based collaborative school improvement model that builds the capacity of leaders at every level to lead rigorous and outcomes-focused peer review and school-to-school support. This programme recognises the vast potential that exists in a school system and offers the framework to harness that potential to produce a sustainable school improvement model. Andrew Ettinger, Head of Collaborative School Improvement, Education Development Trust, “We’re are pleased to be working with schools in the Bishop Stortford area. Their commitment to working together and peer review is inspiring, as is their desire to collaborate for the benefit of all pupils within their schools. Through our work with more than 1,300 schools on our Schools Partnership Programme, we have seen that well-managed, rigorous peer review can have a profound effect on staff engagement with school improvement and outcomes for children.”

The 16 schools are of high quality and this initiative commendably ensures continual improvement and the development of practice for all the pupils in the Bishop’s Stortford area.

The partnership schools are: Summercroft, Windhill21, Northgate, Richard Whittington, Elsenham, Furneux Pelham, Little Hadham, Manor Fields, St Andrew’s Much Hadham, All Saints, Thorn Grove, Thorley Hill, Albury, Spellbrook, Hillmead and St Michael’s.

The process for driving improvements is as follows:

Self-review

Firstly, we identify an area we would like to develop. 

Peer review

Headteachers and deputies within the partnership work together to carry out a peer review of this area, which involves researching and exploring the evidence that supports our review focus, through methods such as lesson observations, work scrutinies and interviews with staff and pupils. 

School-to-school support

Once the peer review is completed, improvement champions from local schools lead training with our staff. This helps us to create an action plan which we use to develop our chosen area. 

This process is repeated for all schools within the hub, and it takes place in a yearly cycle, with a new focus area each year.

An SPP review is:

+ A focus on improvement

+ Rigorous and based on a framework that aligns with the OFSTED framework but goes beyond it

+ Invitational – the host school ‘in the driving seat’

+ Underpinned by a coaching approach

+ Done in a culture of enquiry, learning and growth

+Focused, planned with feedback based on evidence

+ Co-developed and led by schools, for schools

+ Leads to an improvement workshop and follow up school support – ensuring follow up and impact

+ For all members of staff – developed over a period of time and linked to building a culture of ‘trust-based accountability’

+ Part of a culture of improvement – through planned peer reviews and through the more spontaneous and regular reviews of practice and giving and receiving of feedback